Many shop assistants, salesgirls, salesboys, and shopkeepers – or whatever name they are called –have devised some ingenious ways in Abuja to cheat their customers. Almost on a daily basis, they smile home with ‘good returns’ in their pockets, thanks to their trickery.

A lot of drama takes place in many of the sales outlets, plazas, shops or service stations in the city. It is common to walk into a supermarket or shopping suite to find a customer and the shop assistant exchanging harsh words over “change”, the balance the former is legally entitled to after paying for the goods or service they have been offered.

Rarely is this balance, which may range from N50, N150 to N200 or more, available. It seems this is deliberate as sales assistants use all manner of tricks to ensure that the exasperated customer forfeits the balance. In big shops, for example, where there are up to five pay points on the exit, it is funny how customers are told that none of them has change!

Some of the sales persons simply shout, “Oga, no change,” in a deliberate harsh tone intended to embarrass the customer, especially during rush hours when many shoppers are likely to form a very long queue on the exit.

In one particular busy plaza in the Central Business District, the shop assistants perform all sorts of deceitful acts. The popular plaza trades largely in confectionery and household provisions. The ladies, in particular, try fake, flashy smiles or they engage the customer in conversations that portray them as being very familiar with the shopper.

An Abuja resident, Joshua Ohia, shares his experience. Ohia, who is a non-regular shopper, says as he walked in one day to pick a few items. On his way out, he observed that the sales assistant at the pay point suddenly beamed with smiles and initiated a conversation.

“At first, I actually thought I knew her somewhere or we had met before. She asked after my work and I replied ‘fine.’ She said, ‘Oga, you cannot recognise me?’. I tried not to offend her, so I just smiled. But, I realised we had never met before the moment she said, ‘Auditor-General’s Office.’

I told her I don’t work in any Auditor-General’s office. Rather than ending it there, she went on to ask, ‘Okay, CBN?’ Again, I replied in the negative. But, she kept on asking more questions.

“All along, the flashy smiles never left her lips. I paid for the items and waited for my balance. She pretended ‘looking for change’ for some minutes before eventually telling me, ‘Please, no change oh.’ “I ended up not controlling laughter as I left the hall.”

Another resident, Evans Agbo, says a “funny trick” employed by these shop assistants is to thrust a N100 note or some other denomination at you, depending on the amount of your change, and ask if the shopper has N50 so they can take the N100.

“This act is funny to me because it is a well-rehearsed game they are playing with you. They either know you don’t have the N50 or they are hoping you don’t have. In that way, you may reason that there is truly no change because you can see how they are genuinely making efforts to get your change for you.

“When this type of drama plays out, know you are about to lose your change. You see how they suddenly twist faces, suggesting disapproval when it happens that you have the amount they ask of you. Funnily again, that change they are pretending not to have may be right in the drawers.”

Some clever customers try to beat the shop assistants to their games by ensuring they don’t pay for goods with cash. The deployment of Point of Service terminals in a number of the shops is helpful in this regard. This group of customers regularly pays with their ATM cards, using the PoS terminals.

But even this strategy by the customers is frustrated most times by the assistants. They simply tell the ATM card-flashing customer that “there is network problem.”

Regina Samuel has been a victim. She says, “It is either there is network problem or the PoS is out of service. They now insist that you use the nearest ATM outside the hall to withdraw cash and pay for the goods. So, you withdraw cash and return to pay only for the game of no-change to begin. It is so frustrating that most times you get fed up and forfeit your change.”

However, as it is with all situations, they sometimes meet their match in difficult customers, who never part with any change, even if it is N5. These are the ones who create scenes in shopping malls, shouting that their balance must be given to them.

Although, some supermarket owners actually make efforts to placate the customers when there is truly no change by offering confectionery or takeaways equal to the amount of the change, there are still hiccups.

It is either some customers don’t want the takeaways or the shop assistants even fail to make them available, preferring to chorus the “no change” mantra.


http://www.punchng.com/feature/nations-capital/tricks-abuja-shop-assistants-use-to-cheat-customers/

man must make money jor

.... Nairaland

Kkro

Nawa.. Tatics everywhere to make money

Big deal.

No change, return the goods.

.

well, sometimes i deliberately leave my change with the beautiful ones

cuz I've got plans to get em on my bed

Their cheat tactics is simply annoying like say dem be bus conductor.
One day they will pair customers to sort out their change the way bus conductors join commuters to go split their change by themselves.